God of Lies, Teller of Truths
by Salome Bijoux
Summary: S.H.I.E.L.D. operative Rowan Vinter is sent to Asgard after Loki's capture to study him and make sure he is kept under control... My thanks to everyone who has favorites or followed! I'd love some more reviews. Hope you are enjoying this as much as I am.
1. A Meeting, A Revelation

**Name: Dr. Rowan Vinter**

**Position: S.H.I.E.L.D. Operative, Asgardian First Contact Team**

**Education: Ph.D. Psychology, Anthropology**

**Skills: Weapons Training, Interrogation**

**Background: Adopted daughter of Dr. Hogarth Vinter, astrophysicist, and Dr. Gertrude Vinter, psychiatrist. True parentage unknown.**

_Don't believe a word he says. And probably best not to look him in the eye._

This had been Director Fury's last piece of advice. And now she stood, her feet firmly planted in Asgard, about to meet the man she had been sent to study. Loki. God of Mischief. God of Lies. War criminal. She had jumped at the chance to come here, despite the danger. A once in a lifetime opportunity, to see another world, to figure out, once again, how the human mind...she stopped her self. Asgardians were not humans, and Loki was not even Asgardian. This made it easier for some to deal with the aftermath of his destruction, his attempt to subjugate the human race. As if a human had never tried those things before.

_How a sociopath's mind works. A sorcerer. A lost little boy. Because that's what they all are in the end, aren't they?_

She was ushered to the door of the cell by Thor, the God of Thunder himself. In every sense, Thor was Loki's opposite. The picture to Loki's negative. It was easy to see how this whole mess got started. She quietly thanked her parents for keeping her an only child.

"Before I let you in, I have to let you know that for this first meeting, my brother will be muzzled. We thought it for the best, until we know how...strong... your mind is. Loki is a very powerful magician. Sometimes, even without speaking, he can end up controlling you. Even the guards are not allowed in. There was...an incident. Luckily we quickly got it under control, or he would be off trying to subjugate another world." Thor rolled his eyes a bit, but there was real concern behind it. Pain for a brother so seemingly lost.

Rowan thought back to the footage, of an entire crowd of people in Stuttgart kneeling before the trickster god. It was so easy for him then. She would not be so easily fooled.

"My Lord, I believe I have my work cut out for me."

Thor opened the door of the cell into utter nothingness. There seemed to be no floor, no ceiling, just a void. And floating in the void was a cube that seemed to be made of some kind of force field, open to view from all angles. Sitting calmly inside on the floor of the cube was the man himself. Loki. Thor stepped out into the void, and did not fall. He motioned for Rowan to follow him, and she put her right foot out, not quite knowing if it would find ground, and yet there it was. Her foot landed in the nothingness with a pleasing thud. _What magic they have here_, she thought. _Magic. Science. Here they are the same._

"Just a few minutes here. No need to get him…over excited" Thor said, sighing.

Thor led Rowan to the edge of the cube, and she heard the quiet hum of the force field.

"Brother", Thor said by way of greeting. Loki rose from the floor and nodded. He wore the muzzle he had left Earth in, and a simple outfit of black leather breeches and black shirt. No more godly attire here, Rowan thought. No more horned helmet, but still always with the leather. She laughed inwardly. Asgardians and their leather.

"Brother, may I present to you Rowan Vinter of Midgard. She has been sent by S.H.I.E.L.D. to…um…help". Thor looked at her. What was he to say?, Rowan thought. _To study you brother? Like an animal in a zoo? _Rowan finally got a good look at her specimen. Tall, so very tall and imposing. Slim where Thor was muscular. His hair had the blue-black sheen of a raven's feather in the sun. And his eyes…like drowning in a sea of emeralds, then…opals, storm clouds. Ice.

_Blood._

Rowan blinked and realized she had already not heeded the Director's final advice. She may have just made the biggest mistake of her life by looking the God of Lies in the eye.


	2. Dream a Little Dream of Me

In his red-eyed glance Rowan saw frozen wastes, cities burning, pain, devastation…

She broke eye contact. _No_, she thought. _Not so fast. _She steeled her mind, gathered her strength, and looked at him again. _In for a penny…_His right eyebrow was cocked quizzically at her, his eyes back to their emerald hue. She took two steps to her left.

Loki took two steps to his right.

She took two steps to her right.

Loki took two steps to his left.

He was following her like a caged tiger gone mad with boredom.

"We should leave", offered Thor nervously.

"So what are your intentions here? To bore him to death?" Rowan asked Thor after they had left the cell. S.H.I.E.L.D. had let Thor take Loki back to Asgard with a promise of Asgardian justice, but this seemed more like the punishment of a sullen teenager suspended from school.

"You see he is given nothing and no one to make mischief with."

"You saw him taunting me in there. You do not think he will try and _make mischief_ with me?"

Thor smiled. "He has not seen a woman in some time." He saw that this did not amuse Rowan and sighed. "Director Fury assured us you among all his agents could perhaps bring Loki back to reason. I believe he is right. Your mind is strong".

"I appreciate your confidence in my abilities"

Thor turned to leave. "And I appreciate the fact that there seems to be at least one other he can not drive mad."

"What happened to the guards he came in contact with?"

"They leapt off the remains of the bifrost. " Thor looked back at her before striding off. "Good day Rowan Vinter."

In Asgard, even the night was golden. _God, it is beautiful here_, Rowan thought, sitting in her window overlooking the Great Hall. _Like fairy tales_. And just as in fairy tales, there was a handsome prince, a good king, and a mad villain. She once thought fairy tales were for children, but recent events had proven that heroes could be real.

Rowan tucked herself into her sumptuous bed. Like everything in Asgard, it was the most. Everything here was almost too much for the senses. The most comfortable, the most delicious, the most beautiful. She thought of the emeralds in Loki's eyes and blinked hard. No. He killed for fun, drove people mad for laughs. People she knew. Agent Coulson -her mentor, her friend. She tucked herself between the soft (the softest!) sheets, and soon dozed off.

She woke hazily and sensed there was something not right. When her eyes finally found their focus, the first thing she saw was a shadow on the wall. A man. A tall man. Horns.

_NO_!

Before she could move, he was on her. Lightning fast and much too strong, he loomed above her, straddling her legs, holding her hands down. This was the Loki the Earth knew, the boots, the cape, the helmet. She looked up at him and struggled against his might even though she knew it was useless. She wouldn't let him think she was so easily conquered.

"What, no scepter? You disappoint me trickster."

He smirked. Did he do nothing else but smirk? Had he ever smiled? "You Midgard women are a feisty lot." His gaze traveled the length of her. "I like that. So much more satisfying when you finally submit." He leaned in close to the nape of her neck, and inhaled deeply, and then breathing out said, "You always submit."

He took both her wrists in his left hand as his right brushed her cheek. "So lovely", he breathed, his voice like poisoned honey in her ear. His hand moved to the strap of her pink nightgown, pushing it out of his way as his lips grazed her shoulder. There was no fighting him, for despite all of her training his strength was overpowering. She stilled and awaited his worst.

His hand continued its trail downwards. His palm reached her left breast and cupped it gently. "So soft", he murmured, as the tip of his index finger circled began to circle her nipple through the soft pink silk of her gown. It quickly grew hard in spite of herself. She didn't have to see the smirk this time – she could feel it.

On he went, his elegant hand spreading wide across her stomach, and then down to the outside of her thigh. He slowly pushed the edge of her gown up slightly, and then gripping her thigh, pulled her leg away from the other, apart, exposed.

_ This is it, I am not strong, I have disappointed everyone…_

His long fingers traced circles on the soft flesh of her inner thigh. Her breath came in short gasps, her head turned to the side. He could have her, but not her mind. No, not her mind.

It was only when he slipped one graceful finger inside of her, so gently, so very gently, that she realized how wet she had become. She had never been so wet in her life. She looked at the handsome god above her as he raised the dripping finger to his mouth and tasted it. He looked her in the eyes. "So sweet."

She clamped her eyes shut, and when she opened them again he was gone.

_A dream, just a dream_ she said to herself over and over. Gripping the sheets to herself, she could still feel the weight of him on her, his hands upon her. And she was still so wet.


	3. You Get Me Closer To God

Rowan had an appointment with a God.

Today she would start the work she had been chosen for. Too bad she hadn't slept after the nightmare she had. _Loki in her bed, on top of her, his hands…_she again cleared her mind, breathed deeply, and made her way to his cell.

Back home, this would almost be called therapy. But there would be no leather couches, and trying to subjugate the human race would require more than a prescription to Prozac. She was here to try and understand what made him tick. His brother hoped she could help him see reason. Or at the very least, keep him under Asgard's control, so that he would never hurt another being again.

Stranger things have happened.

Thor once again led her to Loki's cell but did not enter with her. "Take as little or as much time as you need. The guards cannot enter but will hear you if you call for help. Good luck, Rowan Vinter." She entered the dark void and heard the hum of the cube shaped force field holding the God of Lies.

Loki had his back to her, seemingly studying something she could not see in the distance – a ploy, that, as there was nothing _to_ see.

"Rowan Vinter of S.H.I.E.L.D.. I see you've come back", said Loki, turning around to face her. _Those eyes…_

"My Lord" she nodded. Best to keep things respectful, especially with a murderous, rogue God. "Did you think I would not?"

He smiled. _A smile? _Thought Rowan. So it _was_ possible. "My dear, I have been expecting you."

She walked up to the force field to get closer to him. "I see. Tell me my Lord, do you think this is a fit punishment for a being who would have destroyed an entire race?"

"It does give me a great deal of time to think" he shot back sarcastically.

She smirked back at him, "That can't be a good thing."

"And what would you like to see done with me?"

"You wouldn't want to know."

"Oh, but I do my dear. Very much."

_ Steady girl, he is trying to get a rise out of you._

"Maybe another time." _He wants a sparring partner. He craves the back and forth, the feeling that he can outwit me. Don't let him have it. _She turned heel to leave.

She got halfway to the door when he offered, "How about tonight then? Perhaps you can wear that lovely pink gown like you did last evening. It did so match the blush on your skin where I touched you." Rowan stopped dead in her tracks as ice suddenly ran through her veins. He continued, steady and calm. "Do you think these four walls can hold me? They were made by amateurs! I am the most powerful magician in all of Asgard. I go where I like. I take what I want."

She turned to face him, trying her best to conceal her terror. "So I am to be yours? Just like that? You know you can over power me easily. Where's the challenge?"

"Oh, I would never do anything as base as _violate _you. That is for brutes, like my oaf of a brother. Oh no, you will give yourself to me willingly."

"Never."

"But you will my dear. You already have." He placed his face against the force field, and breathed in. "I can smell that delicious wetness between your thighs. It started the second I opened my mouth to speak. I can taste it now, sweet as golden apples…" he closed his eyes in reverie.

She ran for the cell door and slammed it behind her.

Rowan locked herself in her room and stifled a wail. She had quite the reputation back home on Earth, had taken down serial killers, drug syndicates, criminals who attempted to trade in weapons of mass destruction. She had been one of the youngest people to be made a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative. Director Fury considered her brilliant. But in the course of twenty-four hours this man…this _God_…she had to get out. Humans she could deal with, but humans were not meant to trifle with gods. She fell asleep sobbing into her pillow.

She awoke to Loki sitting at the foot of her bed.

"It must be so exhausting," he began, "to constantly feel this need for control. Control over your mind. Your very life. "

"You must always be tired then." Despite her shock and terror, she managed a dig.

"Hm. What of your senses Rowan?" His use of her first name and first name only, without the patronizing _dear _knocked her even further off her guard. "You believe you have reached the pinnacle of your mind, your work. But I can show you your true potential. Your glorious purpose." His eyes were like glittering emeralds in the moonlight falling through her window. His pale skin was like the finest marble, his hair like black silk. He was a murderer. A sorcerer. He was beautiful.

She leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. _I will give myself to you willingly._

He took her face in his hands and kissed her, at first gently, then sucking on her bottom lip as she lifted up the hem of his shirt. They broke their kiss as he lifted it over his head, and then plunged his tongue into her mouth as they fell back on the bed. She wrapped her arms around him. He was not big and bulky like his brother, but elegantly built, like a greyhound to Thor's bulldog. He moved his lips to her right earlobe, at first teasing it with the tip of his tongue, and then nipping it with his teeth. She let out a quiet sigh.

"My dear, we must get you out of these clothes" he said, and with a deft hand movement her dress was gone, leaving her in only her black bra and panties. Poof. _Magic. _ She looked at him and giggled. Giggled like a schoolgirl. She couldn't remember the last time that happened. Loki, however, kept a determined look. Impatient actually.

"I want to taste you." It wasn't a request. It was a command.

Loki traced his tongue down the center of her, stopping to kiss along the way until he reached the edge of her black lace panties. "Such frilly underthings for such a calculating woman" he said, investigating them.

"It's a weakness of mine."

"You will know weakness", he hissed, hooking his thumbs into the sides of the panties and sliding them off. "Now, open your legs to me."

Rowan did not hesitate. As she spread her legs she could feel her wetness had already covered her inner thighs. Loki lay between them and spread the soft folds of her flesh apart with his fingers, leaving her utterly exposed. And then he began the business of making her new again.

He dove right in, sliding his tongue as deep as he could inside of her. She had not been prepared for that, and lifted her hips off of the bed with a soft cry as he pushed his face as far as he could between her legs. He grabbed hold of her by her ass, digging his fingers into them. Again and again he pushed his tongue into her, moaning, tasting, and then stopped, looking into her eyes.

"Do you like that my dear? Soon my cock will be inside of you, just as my silver tongue was." Rowan closed her eyes, trying to imagine even making it that far without falling off the face of Asgard from ecstasy.

"You smile? Well then…" and he was off again, circling the tip of his tongue around her clit, teasing it as it stiffened. He became more insistent, sucking, nipping at her clit with his teeth. Her hips pushed herself against him, wordlessly begging him not to stop, her hands entwined in his soft hair, her knees pulled up almost to her chest. Her breath came in gasps between her moans, and she was covered in a sheen of sweat. And again he stopped.

"You wish for my punishment but drip rivers of sugar into my mouth. Which shall it be Rowan? I can stop this now…"

"No! Please…"

He pushed one finger inside of her, then two. "Say my name. "

"Loki…please" He raised an eyebrow. "My Lord…" she breathed.

"Like I said. You always submit." They began to move in rhythm, she moving her hips against his fingers while he began to suck on her clit again. She pushed his head deeper with one hand and gripped the sheets with the other, her toes curling. How long had they already been at it? Minutes? Hours? She was sure she would spontaneously combust if she didn't get her release soon.

Just as that thought entered what was left of her mind, he turned the fingers inside of her upwards, finding that sweet, sweet spot inside of her, teasing it with the pads of his fingertips and she arched her back against the bed. If she hadn't soaked through the sheets by now, she was about to.

"Mmmm, my love, I seem to have found your secret spot". He gave a quick suck to her clit. "Would you like me to finish you now?"

She could barely speak. She could only muster a nod and a weak _please._

"Come for me Rowan." He pressed his fingers roughly against that spot, that spot so deep inside of her, pushing her over the edge and into oblivion.

"My King!"

"That's it my love. That's it."


	4. We Are Magic

**Hey all…I realized that in my hurry to get to the smut I've neglected, oh, I dunno…plot development, characterization. I'm gonna move forward without doing any rewrites for now. If you're enjoying…hope you are still doing so. Please hold, the smut will be back soon.**

_The only sound Rowan heard was the light raining of dirt on the top of the casket as it crumbled slowly out of her hand. Blinded by tears and rage, she buried her mentor, her friend. Agent Phil Coulson, who had taken her under his wing and brought her into S.H.I.E.L.D. after the death of her parents. Who had seen her untapped potential. He was a legend in the ranks, and he had been killed by a god as a man swats at a fly._

_So help me God Phil, I will make him burn for this._

A ray of golden Asgardian sunshine fell across Rowan's eyes, waking her. She bolted upright, alone in her bed, the sheets still damp underneath her.

"SON OF A BITCH!"

Rowan dressed and made her way to Loki's cell in haste, slamming the door behind her.

He was waiting for her.

"Good morning my love", he said cheerily. Seeing her expression, his face fell. "What? Did I not satisfy you last night? Because if that wasn't satisfaction, than you're a better trickster than I".

"Did you even know his name?" Her voice was steel.

"What?"

"You killed a friend of mine."

"I have killed many my love"

"Stop calling me _your love_. I don't know what…magic…you have placed over me but it stops now".

"There was no magic involved my dear. I assure you, you came to me willingly. Just as I said you would". Loki stepped up to the force field of his cage. "And who was this _friend _of yours Rowan? Was he just a friend? Or was he more? Trying to make me jealous?"

"He tried to stop you from getting off that carrier"

"Oooooh…Coulson. Yes. Not very clever was he?"

Rowan stepped close to the barrier, so they were only inches apart, the only thing separating them being the force field. "You call yourself a god, but you will never be even a tenth of the man Phil Coulson was".

"Ech, what do you say on Midgard? He was _collateral damage_". And then he grinned at her. Grinned.

Rowan slapped him, slapped him as hard as she'd ever hit anyone or anything in her life. Every ounce of grief and anger she had been carrying around for months went into it. His head snapped to his right but the rest of him stood steady, and when he slowly turned back to look her in the eyes, he matched her with an astonished stare the color of blood.

"How…" he whispered.

Rowan stared at her hand. Somehow she had breached the magic of the force field to hit him. He had claimed it could not keep him in. It also seemed it could not keep her out.


	5. World In My Eyes

Rowan stepped back from the magic barrier separating her from Loki. She felt outside of herself, as if she was standing just to the right watching the scene unfold. Loki placed his palms flat against the force field, leaning in as far as he could. He had not recovered from his astonishment, though his eyes had returned to emerald.

"Well, what have we here? What sorcery is this?"

Rowan gently tapped on the barrier. She placed her palm against it. Nothing. She banged on it with her first, and it did not yield.

"Looks like you have much to learn"

Rowan looked him in the eyes and said quietly, "I don't know…how…I was… so angry…"

"And it was lovely to feel your touch my dear".

Rowan stared, gasping for breath.

"Tonight darling? Same time?"

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"Rowan Vinter!" greeted Thor as she exited Loki's cell. "How does your work with my brother go?"

Rowan, completely unsettled, nearly gave him an honest answer. _Oh well, I don't know, let's see, you brother is still an unleashed sociopath who escapes his cell during the night to lie between my legs and I let him even though he killed my dearest colleague. And you?_

"He is…a tough nut to crack". Thor raised an eyebrow. "It's an Earth expression".

"Ah! Yes. Miss Winter? You are pale. Are you unwell? Rowan?"

Everything went black.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

When she woke, Thor was looming in her window with his back to her.

"How long was I out?"

"Three hours." Thor turned to look at her, his face tense.

"Have you been here the whole time?"

"Yes. Miss Vinter, you must assure me that my brother has not touched your mind".

"My lord…" Rowan struggled to sit up. "I have not slept well, and the journey from Earth…"

Thor's face did not soften. "Of course. Please excuse me, but I am one of the few who hold out hope for my brother…"

"It's quite alright my lord." Thor bowed slightly and strode out of the room.

_Liar. You are no better than that monster. The journey from Earth…really? _

Rowan shut her eyes.

_The journey from Earth._

She had no recollection of it.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Rowan hugged her knees to her chest as she watched twilight fall outside her window. The Director's last words to her and then…waking up in her bed here in her quarters in Asgard. She breathed deeply, calmed her mind, surely it would come to her…

She was so deep in thought that the first evidence of Loki's arrival was his hand brushing her hair from her ear.

"Good evening my dear"

Rowan leapt out of bed, startled. "I just can't escape you can I?" She growled. "If you're not out of your cage I'm somehow getting into it. Can you explain that to me trickster? Because I'm beginning to find there are more than a few things that need explaining."

"You are angry".

"You have a real talent for stating the obvious."

"Come, sit", he said patting the bed beside him. "Tell me a tale".

"What kind of tale?"

"Tell me of Midgard. Of your family. How you came to be here"

Rowan, exhausted in both mind and spirit, collapsed next to him. "Well…I was adopted, like you. My parents worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. They were both brilliant scientists. I looked up to them, wanted to be like them. They were killed during a botched operation. Collateral damage, as you like to say. I was fifteen. Afterwards, Phil…Agent Coulson took me under his wing. He made sure I did well in school; made sure I had birthday presents. He vouched for me and made me an agent by twenty-two. " Rowan realized there were tears running down her face. "He wasn't just my colleague. He was like a second father to me. And you killed him."

"You cry for your lost fathers." Loki rose from the bed. "But what have they ever done? Choose favorites? Not see the truth? You are better off without the lot of them."

"Did they teach you this cruelness? "

"Did they give you your weakness?"

And with that she was on him. She would never remember how it started.

Did she punch him? Kick him? She remembered beating her fists against his chest. Throwing various objects at him. It was around the time she smacked him upside the head with a heavy candlestick that she realized she was inflicting damage. He was bleeding from the corner of his mouth.

He was weakening. She knocked him to the ground and straddled his chest, punched him, slapped him, and then she realized…he was smiling. He was enjoying it.

"That's right my love. Punish me."

Panting, she held his hands over his head, just as he had done to her that first night. She could hold him down. That was new.

_He really was extraordinarily beautiful, especially when he wasn't smirking or killing someone._

"Punish me."

Rowan imagined bonds, the strongest bonds in the universe, encircling his hands and feet, holding him down so she could do what she wanted with him. She let his hands go.

"Touch me." She whispered.

He couldn't. He was bound as if weighted to the floor.

"What have you done?" For the first time since meeting, he looked scared.

"Punishing you."

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"You know, you really are quite lovely. Of course, you are a god. Gods not only are reflections of our best selves, but also our worst tendencies." As she said this, she trailed one fingernail down the side of his face, drawing blood. He smiled nervously.

"Do with me what you will."

"Oh I will." She kissed him, tasted the blood in the corner of his mouth. "Tell me, how many have you bedded here in Asgard? How many friends of your father's? Their daughters? The serving wenches? The stable boys? And they all came willingly in the end, just as I did, did they not?" He shifted uncomfortably underneath her. "I'd ask you how it feels to have the shoe on the other foot, but you're so hard I already have the answer." His cock was straining visibly beneath his breeches.

She stood up and wiggled out of her panties, and then in one fell swoop hiked her skirt up and straddled his face. She plunged her hand into his hair and sneered, "Do not disappoint me, _my king_." His tongue danced around her clit, but she wiggled her hips so that he could not hit his target.

"Oh no, this just _won't do_", she complained, removing herself from his face. "You seemed to be so good at this just last night. Have you forgotten everything?" She banged his head lightly against the floor.

"My love if you would just…" Rowan followed his line of sight to his cock.

"Just what?" She unlaced his breeches and his member sprang forth, fully erect. It really was a glorious thing, seemingly chiseled from stone, elegant in its' length. "Suck on it?"

"Oh my love, please…I want to feel your mouth on…"

"No".

"But…"

"I said no. You have used me Loki Laufeyson." Again she straddled him, took him in her hand and rubbed the tip of him in her wetness. He was hard and cool as marble. A low moan escaped from him. "Now I will use you". And with that she slowly but insistently slid her self onto him.

For a moment she saw stars, not in pain, no it wasn't quite that. She had never been so beautifully, perfectly _filled_ before. She ground herself into his hips, making sure he was inside of her to the hilt, making tiny circles around him.

"Please free me. Let me touch you" Was that desperation in his voice?

"No"

"For the love of the gods woman!"

"No"

She leaned over to lie on top of him, still moving herself slowly on him. He frowned back up at her. "Are you enjoying this trickster? Am I not a tight fit?"

Breathing hard through clenched teeth, he said, "Very tight my love."

"Why the frown?"

"I want touch you."

"What else?" She leaned back , her palms on his chest.

"I want you naked, to feel your warm skin against mine, to feel your nipples harden under my tongue."

"And?"

"I want to rub my thumb on you clit while you ride me."

"Mmmmmm, that does sound nice."

"Let me go then!"

"No". She started to move her hips back and forth now, picking up speed. "I think this is all I require right now, this lovely cock of yours. It does get me _so wet_." She rode him, back and forth, back and forth, moaning and biting her lip. She knew she didn't have much longer to make him frustrated before his cock, that amazing cock robbed her of all logic.

"I wonder, is your brother as big as you? Does he get as hard? I wonder what it would be like to ride him like this."

"You bitch! You dare bind me like a common thief and ride me while your quim gets wet thinking of _my brother?_"

"Temper, temper darling. Just lay back and enjoy it". _The trickster can't even see the game I'm playing. _Rowan leaned further back, her palms on the floor behind her to steady herself. His hips lifted off the floor as he drove himself deep inside of her. _Mmmmm, that's it, _she thought, as he hit the delicious spot he'd found with his fingers the night before. Their rhythm was quick now, her sliding down on him while he bucked up into her. Reason truly left her now, and all she could think of was how he felt inside of her, against that most sensitive part of her, tightening herself around him…

"Rowan," he panted, "please…release me…"

But all she heard was the blood rushing though her ears to the beat of her heart. There was an all-enveloping shimmer that came over her, and she felt the warmth of his seed inside of her. In her mind's eye she saw the glimmer of snow falling in moonlight, vast fields of ice…and when she opened her eyes, she saw everything through a veil of red.

She looked down at the god trapped beneath her, both of them all astonishment, their eyes the same shade of blood.

"My love…you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen."

And again, blackness gripped her.


	6. To Sleep, Perchance To Dream

**I know it's been awhile folks, but I've been so busy with work and was waiting for some inspiration. I finally got going again…**

_ Father, I do not believe she is the solution. She has been overwhelmed by her dealings with my brother. She knows not her full power, and I fear she never will._

_ Patience Thor. I believe we will yet see her rise to her full potential. The game is not yet over._

_ Game, Father? It is a very dangerous one we are playing. Should we lose, Asgard will not be the only realm to suffer._

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

It had to have been days this time, and all the while she was tortured by nightmares. Nightmares of darkness and cold like she had never experienced before, cold down to the very marrow of her bones. In her dreams there was no sun to warm her, and she longed for the golden light of Asgard. Beings with blue skin and red eyes surrounded her, bowed down before her. She fled from them but they always found her, and chanted her name. Occasionally Loki would appear on the periphery of her dreams, whispering something she could not hear, and she would run towards him, knowing against every ounce of her better judgment that she would be safe if she could just hear his voice. But just as she would reach him, try to throw her arms around him, he would disappear. The despair she felt at those moments was utterly complete. Howling into the freezing darkness, she would lay down in the frost, only to be surrounded once again by monsters.

When she awoke, she was shocked to find herself drenched in sweat. There was a great commotion as she flailed in her bed sheets. Servants went running, pillows were upended, and a great roar could be heard coming down the hallway towards her.

_Must be Thor_, she thought, even through the haze of heat and sleep.

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"I would speak with Miss Vinter alone", proclaimed the God of Thunder. The remaining servants scattered, and the door of her room closed with a great thud. Rowan was finding it took a great effort just to sit up.

"It is a relief to see you awake Rowan", he said, sitting on the edge of her bed. "Please, do not exert yourself. You have been quite ill". Rowan's head fell back to her pillow. She was so weak. Her mouth was bone dry, and she barely squeaked out her first words,

"How long?"

"Seven days", said Thor. "You were quite feverish. You were calling out in your sickness."

"Calling out?"

"Yes"

"For what?"

"Not for what, for who. For my brother"

Rowan closed her eyes, and turned her head away from Thor. _He knows_.

"Tell me Rowan", Thor began, his blue eyes boring into her. "What do you know of Jotunheim?"


End file.
